Alfred Herrhausen Gesellschaft - Das internationale Forum der Deutschen Bank - Istanbul

The third Deutsche Bank Urban Age Award went to Barış İcin Müzik (Music for Peace), an urban intervention in the form of a community music project located in Edirnekapi, one of Istanbul’s most disadvantaged inner-city neighbourhoods. It was presented in İstanbul, Turkey, on the evening of 4 November 2009 to coincide with the Urban Age Conference in İstanbul on 5-6 November 2009.

Following the launch of the 3rd Deutsche Bank Urban Age Award in April 2009 and an extensive press and internet campaign, 87 applications were received.

The submissions came from all corners of Istanbul’s vast metropolitan area, with initiatives from inner-city neighbourhoods and peripheral areas on the European side, to spaghetti-junctions and housing estates on the Asian side, as well as projects on the Marmara Sea coastline and on the edges of the Black Sea. Many of the projects addressed some of the critical problems faced by Istanbul’s most fragile communities – new immigrants, isolated women, disadvantaged children, and the disabled and homeless young men – while others focused on the spatial inadequacies of this rapidly growing and intense city – traffic congestion, lack of open space and restoration of the city’s heritage.